that was senator tom coburn in july, a direct quote there, that was senator tom coburn lying about something to which he now admits. i mean take your pick, either senator coburn is lying now when he telling the "new york times" that he did try to broker a pay aufate for senator ensign to his mistrisz or in july when he denied doing exactly that. when he said he had not tried to broke ear deal, senator coburn's paper wrote an editorial about their senator's role in the affair. it started with this line. quote, we take senator tom coburn at his word. when he says he did not advice senator john ensign to pay off his married mistress. it would have been completely out of character for him to do so. maybe it's time to revise that assessment of his character. joining us now is jeff charlotte, author of the family, he's also a contributing editor to harper's magazine. thank you for joining us. >> rachel, great to be back. >> is there anything about the family, about c street where both of these senators lived, that would give us some insight about a cash payout to the mistress' family. >> sure, you

coburn dismissed that as ridiculous. mr. hampton came back with a lower number, about $2 million which mr. coburn passed on. mr. ensign flatly rejected that proposal, quote, that's a joke? forget it. mr. coburn recalls mr. ensign saying. this is a sitting u.s. senator. secretly negotiating a settlement for a colleague's elicit affair. as a deacon and a physician or something. mr. coburn who was once tight lipped about the whole situation, now tells the times, quote, john got trapped doing something really stupid and then made a lot of mistakes afterward. judgment gets impaired by arrogance and that's what's going on here. still left unanswered are questions surrounding payments to the hampton family by senator ensign's parents. a check for $96,000 made out to doug and cindy hampton and two of their three kids. still don't know what happened for a third kid that he had to be left out of it. cindy and doug hanson -- ensen claims that this was just a gift from his parents to the hamptons and two of their three children. whether

tom coburn. senator, thanks for joining us tonight. >> glad to be with you. >> i'd much prefer a discussion of substance over process but let's hoo get this out of the way. it looks like the senate will vote on their version of the plan and then the may lay starts. then the melee starts. will it happen? >> i don't think it will have a public option. but it will have a watered-down whether it's a co-op or trigger, but the point is we end up in the same place. >> it doesn't matter on any of those counts. you're not voting for anything with any of those elements in it? >> it doesn't solve the problem. every bill they've put forward grows the government by at least a minimum of a trillion dollars. and, for example, 88 new government programs just in the bill that the senate has considered, that's 150,000 federal employees now involved in health care that aren't involved now. there's no question we have things we need to markedly change in our health care marketing and model and cost. but having the g

tom coburn. >>> and lots of talk about a t.a.r.p. exit strategy. now's the time?n air america's mark walsh. >>> stocks rallied today over 100 points. markets say where they are putting their money in the middle of this. >>> and what does it mean for opec and the west now that russia is number one in oil

but coburn saw himself as the senator's friend and doug hanson's friend. he explains it, at least, he was trying to achieve reconciliation between the parties and see a way that the hansons, who clearly have been harmed, could be made whole. and you know, but it -- >> with money? >> right. yeah. it was very odd and i'm sure that's going to be looked at as well. >> well, this was a long piece. you guys have clearly done a lot of great reporting. eric with "the new york times," thanks, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> all right. health care reform is now getting closer than ever before to the possibility of action on the senate floor. >> that's right. you know, the senate finance committee worked until 2:15 this morning to try to hash out what amendments would be included in its bill and the committee will hold a final vote next week, seems like they have been voting forever. of course -- >> you say that for the last amendment? >> exactly, 2:15 vote. they were working on it until 2:15, i should same after the congressional budget office figures out how mu

tom coburn weighing in on obama's health care plan. final trade now, j.t. >> national oilwell.lackstone still has some room. >> aeropostale. >> petey. >> dupont. >> giddy-up and up. i'm melissa lee. see you you tomorrow for the halftime report 12:45 eastern time and again at 5:00 for more "fast money" right here on cnbc. we're first in business worldwide. >>> what the charts are saying before the numbers. plus, pete reveals a stock with a secret identity. and could a walk down the aisle help beat the recession? "fast money" tomorrow on cnbc, first in business worldwide. ♪ yes, you're lovely... ♪ what do you think? hey, why don't we use our points from chase sapphire and take a break? we can't. sure, we can. the points don't expire... ♪ there is nothing for me... ♪ there's no travel restrictions... we could leave tomorrow. we can't use them for a vacation. you can use the points for just about anything. i know... ♪ the way you look tonight ♪ chase what matters. get your new chase sapphire card at chase.com/sapphire. it doesn't cover everything. and what it doesn't cover can cost

. >> moving on to the next one, this next question comes from kurt coburn. >> when we're hiring a chiefarketing officer to work for us, how do we know they're a great fit into our company culture? >> you have a strong culture in your company. >> i do. >> you can't always tell that from one interview or ever maybe. >> no. in terms of how you know somebody fits in your culture, the answer is ultimately you don't know until they've been there for a couple years. >> years? >> if it's extremely bad or extremely good, you might know right away. and i don't say that in a bad way. at thend of the day -- i'll tell you our interviewing process quickly for people at that level which is way more than one interview that would help. it's still i think at best 60% odds that you really know. >> ari is too humble to forget. we once proclaimed him the cool left smal company in america. he has a great culture. we've got 1700 entrepreneurs here at the conference and they're like snowflakes. no two are alike. one thing i'm a big fan of not multiple interviews, but group interviews. that will give you a wind

there was an $8.5 million settlement wanted before and tom coburn of oklahoma, a friend of ensign, acted as an intermediary last spring. the big front page story "the new york times" today. eric, concerning the ethics laws violations, doug hanson, talking senator ensign knew what was happening might be illegal? >> doug hanson, as you noted, the former aide to senator ensign and doug hanson's wife was having an affair for months with hanson. hanson came to us corroborated with us by separate interviews and documents, this was an active plan by senator ensign and hanson to move him off the senator's staff, first of all, set him up in a political consulting and lobbying job and get him business from donors of ensign's. and it went so far as to -- as to allow hanson to actively lobby ensign and ensign in turn to do the bidding of hanson's clients in calling, for instance, two different transportation secretaries in putting pressure on the interior department to release the environmental impact statement for $5 billion coal plant for a company that ensign represented and other instances as we

and you look at the quotes of about an hour arrest so go, that senator coburn saying on the record, somethingthe effect of, you know, john did something stupid and then exacerbated the situation by a series of mistakes. and what's most amazing is trying to park the husband of the woman you're having an affair of back in nevada and it turns out he ends up being a lobbyist. there is a comment from that fellow himself that he and ensign knew full well that they were violating lobbying ethics rules. and they simply didn't care. >> clinton was trying to get a job for monica to farm her out. at the u.n., everywhere. >> the problem being, what ensign did was a cover up. if you're a sitting senator and you go to a firm and say give a job to my friend, give a $100,000 contract to my friend and then that firm has a bill before congress, and says we need your vote, what are you going to say to that firm? yes. >> that's the problem with going with the hanky panky and getting in the market with it. who got the president to go to copenhagen tonight, you say, you can report? >> generally speaking, accumulat

when we look at the quotes, senator coburn, the republican of oklahoma, saying on the record something effect of, john did something stupid and then exacerbated the situation by a series of mistakes. and most amazing, in a story which is about to park the husband of the woman you're having a affair with, turns out he was a lobbyist. there is a comment from that fellow himself that he and enson knew full well they were violating lobbying ethics rules. >> this is what clinton did with monica. clinton was trying to farm monica out trying to get her a job. >> the problem is what he did is worse than a coverup. if you're a senator and go to a firm and say give a job to my friend, and then that firm has a bill before congress and calls you and says we need your vote, what are you going to say to that firm? you say yes. >> let's go to jim. you got a scoop, who got the president to go to copenhagen tonight? >> generally speaking, accumulation of folks. obviously we know that three former aides to richard m. daley, david axelrod, rahm emanuel, valerie jarrett, the key point personnel when it ca

he, senator coburn and senator ensign are house mathes.they live in a house together over on capitol hill that very common for members of congress to share housing. but senator co burn was a counsel to an extent to mr. hampton and senator ensign and was a bit of a go between in trying to help resolve this situation. as the -- as we had all reported earlier, senator ensign had sort of intervened to help try to mend the relationship between mr. hampton and senator ansign, trying to -- he told senator ensign to, that he should end this affair and come forward and apologize. early on, when this was going on back in 2008. what the times told us, which was a little bit new, was that we had known that mr. hampton had -- we had known from senator ensign, senator ensign had claimed that mr. ensign had made tonight nt demands for money as a way to make amendments for what had happened after having this affair and the family losing their jobs at senator ensign's office. and what the times told us is that senator co burn had been a go between as mr. h

coburn's bill says he's partnered with mr. ryan of wisconsin. that bill brings down the cost of health care. so that's my pledge. that's the bill that i wanted to talk about today to my colleagues, mr. speaker, and i hope that they will look at it. you know, i carry this around in my pocket and, colleagues, you can go to gingrey.house.gov. gingrey.house.gov and look for the health care bill of rights, the 10 prescriptions for a healthy america. that's what we talked about here over this last hour, almost an hour, and i commend it to my colleagues and i welcome their ideas, my door's open, just as the president said his door's open, he welcomes our ideas. this is sharing. it's a bipartisan thing. yes, sleats stop bickering and get the job done -- let's stop bickering and get the job done. i thank you for the time, mr. speaker, and i now yield back. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. under the speaker's announced policy -- the gentleman from iowa, mr. king, is recognized for 60 minutes. mr. king: thank you, mr.